Tuna Toast

Healthy Japanese Dinner


I've really been inspired to cook more Japanese food lately. It's healthy, nutritious and delicious. I recently bought a great cookbook called The Essentials of Japanese Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki. It not only contains all of the favorites of my youth, but very details explanations of techniques that really makes a big difference.

I'm excited to keep learning more about Japanese cooking in addition to honing the skills I learned from my mom. Hopefully I'll be making intricate Japanese meals in a year or so......

Here is dinner from the other night:

Tohbyo (pea shoot) salad with sesame dressing
Just a simple salad of pea shoots, lettuce and tomatoes with a bottled Japanese "diet" sesame dressing that tastes amazing.

Hamachi no kama (broiled yellowtail collar)
Yellotail collar sprinkled with a bit of sake and a lot of salt, broiled and eaten with grated daikon and shoyu.

Tori dango to kabu no nimono (braised chicken balls and turnips) These are chicken meatballs made with lean ground chicken, grated onion, chopped reconsituted shiitake mushrooms, diced carrots and seasonings. They are first poached in hot water before being added to kabu (Japanese turnips, very similar in flavor and texture to daikon) and simmered in a light broth of bonito stock, soy sauce, mirin and sake.
Gobo no kimpira (Burdock Kimpira) Julienned burdock root and carrots are sauteed in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sake and red chili flakes. I like to use a bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds for extra flavor. My husband and I could eat bowls of this, which would probably be ok since it is very healthy. I used pre-cut frozen burdock which works very well in this. Unfortunately after a long day at work, I hardly have the time to clean, soak and cut a whole burdock myself.


Tagged with Japanese food + Japanese cooking + Healthy cooking